D's Blog

PART TWO:

Dancing Journey with NTP; Retreat January  24-3, 2010

8 days 7 Nights

Before I continue this story about our past Neighborhood Temple Priestess Belly Dance Retreat, let me remind readers that not all our retreats are like this one. Each is unique. You may wonder how that could be true. I see the art as a jewel. I assure you I love belly dance in all it’s facets. Check out the list of dancers I have worked with. They are all apart of my dance experience I am proud to say

For instance next retreat is April 2-9 2010 Tribal Hula Fusion

Amy Sigil of UNMATA, the award winning Dahlia Moon and Delilah and Erik of HOT.

It’s on the very physical dance plane. See the details . Hurry up!

Story begins again:

Now we are at mid way of our retreat.

On day four I introduced some breathing and relaxation techniques. These were a series of gestalt awareness exercises. In a relaxed trancy state we moved to mirror dances and then instructed to stay centered and quiet. No talking and put on your shoes. Slowly I lead them on a dance adventure into nature. They were instructed to be free to move with, in contrast, in reaction to, what ever they came across. Listen, see, feel, smell, with internal awareness and external awareness. Lose your self consciousness and be like a child of the universe. Get inside the moment. Remember. I was so pleased at this groups full participation. They went very far into the moment. We all feel into a timeless reality. Some of us danced with tears in our eyes to these pink petaled flowers with green leaves that shared the top of a thick gray spiky menacing stock. The birds repeated phrases like a drum rhytm rif. Voices murmured occasionally from far away. The sun made shadows on the lawn and the dancers interacted with them. Some found spider webs and spiders. others were inspired and effected but the energetic direction of the patterns found in nature. Unexplainable things, yet when we stopped to share our discoveries with one another the words flooded in with glee. These thing all came vivid to the surface of our being because of the preface of this work with the gestalt exercises. Know this; You did not need to take your self out side to meet with nature. Everything we have done out here today is totally applicable to any stage and all performance. Stay plugged in to the moment. The truth that followed was immediately seconded by the call of a gecko. Nothing but the truth!

Next I introduced the magical concept of labyrinths(cool photos of one of the NTP’s labyrinths). It is astounding how this seemly complicated pattern can be so culturally universal. It is mathematic and psychic. It  totally is related to the circular figure eight and spiral patterns we draw with our hips. The thing about labyrinths is they are not meant to confuse you like a maze, but lead you to the center. A focal point. This was in preparation for the evenings ritual labyrinth christine would lead us through. Read more about Labyrinths .

Off to lunch and then back to class wearing our Sea Faring and Nature Honoring Goddess Costumes we made for our little contest. We thought it would be fun to dance in them during Hula class taught by Richard.  Verna won the grand Prize. She was the Moon and the Starry Sky Goddess! The prize was a cowry shell basket with cowry shell jewelry and Koa wood beads. Richard taught us a powerful dance to Pele and urged us to be more savage! I loved that we were all decked out in Goddess costumes learning this dance for Pele.

Ok, so these students are not average belly dancers by any means now. They have pounded their feet to the rhythms of the earth and swayed their hips to the pulse of the surf. Reached up to the sky and gathered the gifts into their hearts and sent it into the cosmos. They have connected with the internal and the external. They have experienced freedom and play and the natural spontaneity of life. We have danced to music drum, word play, rosters crowing, taste, scent, shadow, light, wind, sound of surf. Now comes a transformative event. The dance of the labyrinth. We began before dinner laying out the grid, wrapping electric candles in tissue paper and setting them out onto the lawn. There were about 600 and it would measure about 48-50 feet across. As soon as it got dark the pattern was revealed in the dark grass and the moon rose full as ordered in the sky above. Some staff at Kalani walked the labyrinth during the dinner hour and sat and quietly watched us as we appeared after diner in our NTP whites dance attire. Clouds stood back and did a veil dance around the giant opalescent rainbow moon straight over our heads. It illuminated our crown chakras.  We grounded and centered and one by one we began our journey into the labyrinth. John played his sax and Erik played drum. Some of us danced with veils some brought instruments like drum and chimes. The dancing journey was intense and enchanting. I went first and when I arrived in the center I spun until I  collapsed in the center. I was a pile of white., with my veil made of what I call ghost silk (because it is so light). I lay there on the soft bed of grass cocooned in my silk and surrounded by concentric winding rings of candle light and the gently stepping of dancers and the delicate touch of omnipresent moon beams in the air. When I arose to dance out of the labyrinth I met each dancer one by one upon the path. We embraced each other so tenderly. We cried, and exchanged the knowing of our knowing.  This place, this time, this life

“Your beauty is my beauty

and my beauty is your beauty

only in relationship to each other

do we know beauty.”

As I left the labyrinth I picked up a drum and joined Erik and watched the dancers meet and part at different junctures along their way. It’s always so interested to note that the center of the labyrinth is only 10-14 feet away from where I observe but as I see the person in the center I know their journey was much longer so they seemed a world away. Yet I know we are in the same world.

NOTE:The entire retreat was profound this way.

Up early before the sun for the next amazing event. We all jumped into cars and walked out upon another path that twisted through the lava beds to a brand new virgin beach. Three of us put on our Sea Faring costumes and the rest came to watch us dance into the sea at new Kapana beach at dawn; Laura Rose Christine and Me. We walked a path out across the lava field to the beach. Just like the labyrinth with the ocean of life at the center.  Her tide was way in leaving little room for beach dancing. Laura Rose set up the camera and she went first. Dressed in feathers, fur and seeds and with silver bits and a moon on her forehead. White drapes of fabric hugged her thighs and red laced sandals scrolled up to her knees.

Christine wore a fantastic Grecian Costume fitted for Aphrodite. On a base of white drapes gold brackets of metal clasped the fabric and deep red roses. Very beautiful. She did a dance with a mirror where she showed the ocean her own reflection in the morning sun break. So beautiful.

I wore my very first sea faring costume from 1991. Green and fuchsia. I charges down the beach as the surf was out so I could start my dance around a bend of rock and dance toward the water the observers and the eye of the camera.

Afterward everyone got in the warm water. Some were a bit surprised to find it so warm. It’s a bit of illusion. The water does not change temperature at night but the sand does. The contrast makes the water feel like a bath tub in the early hours and chilled in the middle of the day.

Wow. next was some good old fashion Power Belly workout after breakfast and a talk about Goddess Archetypes. How do these Psychological profiles of Greek and Roman mythical figures influence our western minds. What can we learn about our selves by exploring them creatively as dance inspiration?  Artemis, Athena, Hestia, Hera Demeter, Persephone, and Aphrodite. Everyone was encouraged to read the book by Jean Shinoda Bolen, and  before or during the retreat.

The Goddesses in Every Woman

The Goddesses in Older Women

The Goddesses in Every Man

Urgent Message From Mother

It was Lori’s birthday today, so we gave her a royal Goddess veil blessing treatment today!

After dinner we would do my community Zaar ritual. It’s simple and the group has been very physical for the past 48 hours so it would not be a long zaar I figured. I though it was time to show them some skinner releasing exercises. This is how you can begin to dance coming from a a totally deep relaxed body. It will come in handy for tomorrows guided movement meditation to meet the Goddesses as well. The zaar went well. And I think we all fell into a deep sleep that night.

On day 6 week retreated to nature in our own way. A bit of private space and time. Nice. Erik and I went to a secluded beach we found behind a Hawaiian burial ground we found up the road a piece. It was very beautiful, peaceful and rejuvenating. Some went to the volcano park but it was partially closed because of vog.

After dinner we came back for the Journey with in our minds to meet the goddesses each in their richly described symbolic environment. Each Goddess gives you a gift. The gift could be absolutely anything and at the end you lay them all out around you and we dance our gratitude. Christine made a lovely sound scape for us. Figuring out why certain gifts were given to you is a process of creative inner exploration.

Next a belly dance obstacle course. It rained during the night and the atmosphere was sucking up the water in every article of clothing wow. Our luggage was weighing more for sure. Everyone was instructed to wear a bathing suit to class. The rain was welcome and our obstacle course made good use of it. I set a course in the studio that everyone would do 3 runs of. Then they were instructed to dance out the door and meet with nature. Stay engaged with the natural world and it’s offerings as well as follow the path past the office and into the shower then into the pool where you were to engage your belly dance arms and mermaid bodies. Then out toward the reclining Buddha to follow a new spiral designed labyrinth Chris had made with bamboo and banana leaves!  We jumped into the pool and labyrinth in the rain yippee! What a conquest. They have learned to journey through the dance!

Our last class was with Christine. Fire! Not as a thing to dangerously fling around our bodies, but as inspiration on how to harness the energy that is inside of us. The heat that burns. The fuse of life. Flicker as ecstatic chaotic undulation consuming oxygen. These exercises were followed by using the smoke of incense as it passes in the air. This was a fantastic class and I am always inspired to see and experience something new, challenging and thought provoking. I got to pair up and do some very creative contact dancing with Laura Rose. So good!

In the evening we held our final performance on the dinning lanai for the staff to enjoy. Alexandra made a fantastic MC. Now that we know she has such talents. . . Wayne, Malina, Christine, Laura Rose and me with everyone drumming for me. Sweet!

This retreat felt so incredibly successful. We came many more miles that air planes and rental cars could carry us. Because of our presence there is no place we cannot go with our dance. belly dance is not just a universal body language it’s a how our cosmic space ship is powered. I love this universe!

After dinner and wine we met at the banana leaf labyrinth for a final candle night ceremony. with real candles and real flames and parting remarks and blessings.

Merry meet,

Merry part and Merry meet again.

Blessed be!

Delilah

your Neighborhood Temple Priestess at your service

PS. I know I gotta get some photos up to go with it but it’s funny I really live in the moment and I’m off to the next shiny thing.

PART ONE:

Dancing Journey with the Neighborhood Temple Priestesses;

Retreat January 2010

8 days 7 nights

I have been home since Feb 2nd and my suit case is still not unpacked. Soon as I came home I had 3 crazy cats to attend to. Bevin was looking after them while we were gone but they were not very happy to have us gone for 10 days. Kinko camped out in our bedroom for the time we were gone only coming down for duties. She would not purr for the first hour we were home. Tiamat was her usual evasive self and I could tell she slept on the living room couch. Sophie stayed in the kitchen the whole time on a pillow. I have a stack of mail and phone messages to deal with and a ton of e mail of course. Now my butt hurts from too much sitting at the computer. It’s tax time and so book keeping to do now. I have been trying to write a blog entry since before Hawaii . I thought I would even write from there. Usually I have lots to say and write but this retreat has kind of blown me away a bit. Yikes, I have no editor either. Please so for give any typos.

First of all I imagine you might want to know what the Neighborhood Temple Priestess are? Well it’s a committed bunch of dancers with a little bit different focus than other groups. Yes, we feel belly dance empowers our life but not only. It also empowers the lives of our family and greater community if we know how. The way of how is what I teach and mentor. If what we are doing is different then it means what you know already is not it, so keep an open mind and let the difference in. An important part of the NTP is being able to think out of the box, be a leader, strive to be a good dancer, an artist and a Temple Priestess.

Story begins:

We should have called this retreat Belly Dancing Journey through Inner and Outer space for that is what we managed to do. I know that any of these words cannot adequately describe or substitute the actual experience. Hopefully that is what these experiences do over all. They serve to remind people that life is for living not just twittering tweetering about.

In Hawaii we stayed in a room they call the Tree House. It’s not really a tree house but it’s their deluxe rustic accommodation. We loved it! The entry was in the west and the east side was completely glass and screens open to a lush meadow that hugged the country road an acer a way. We got to witness the rising sun and sleep to the sound of the ocean surf. Fuchsia bougainvillea an occasional orchid and lush green tangle of jungle vines framed our view. In the center of the room was a vertical post that supported a 14 foot high ceiling that sloped toward 3 separate alcove rooms. Around the center post was a rectangular tiles table and a lamp in front of that facing the view was a wicker couch and a divan and a kitschy floor lamp that was in the shape of a palm tree. We had a refrigerator, microwave and a coffee pot with coffee and milk in the frig. The bathroom was spacious with lots of staging area for changing clothes, make up and  toiletries. Wow I could live here for a while!

I did try to post a blog entry while I was in Hawaii but the retreat was so rich and my mind got so expanded it couldn’t find it’s way into the lap top key pad. Words would fall helter skelter out of my head but they kept running across the the table to play with the with the Geckos that lived on the table post. Geckos are suppose to bring good luck. There is a belief that when one is heard making their long sustained clicking noise, then what ever has been spoken last in the vicinity is to be known as the honest truth. We had many geckos living with us. They keep the mosquitoes down, so they make good room mates. We had a boy and a girl who lived behind the bathroom mirror and would catch bugs attracted to the light. We had the one who lived on the table post where another lamp kept the bug supply coming. Then we had the prankster gecko who would hang his little back legs and tale off the edge of a crack in a board in the ceiling and poop! It was so funny to see. “Hey you?” we would yell and laugh. Luckily it was over the floor and not our bed or heads. House keeping in the jungle is a daily task needless to say. Kalani are experts at it (no worries.) In the jungle you can expect to find bugs, mongoose, wild boar, goats, rats, cats, giant snails, wild turkeys, beautiful birds of all colors, a few dogs. . . We saw all of them. In the water you can see dolphin, sail fish, hump back whales, sea turtles, millions of fish and coral. We saw some of them too even though we didn’t go snorkeling this trip.

Ok so how was the retreat?

Well one should know first that every retreat we do has it’s own theme and schedule of classes and guest instructors, musicians and events. This one was on Neighborhood Temple Priestess Training retreat. The goal was to dance and sweat so we got a good dose of exercise but then diverge into the more esoteric, artsy, touchy, feely realm of belly dance that has been cultivated by the visionary belly dance water mark. These are teachings that are not ordinary fare in my classes and retreat but are very dear to my heart. We delved into our minds, our hearts and our humanity as dancers.

This retreat was small. This means of course that those that signed up for this retreat get a lot of individual undivided attention from me, Erik, and  Laura Rose. We get to know the members of our retreat  very up close and personal. I can even write about them individually with out it becoming a huge book.

Jane was brand new to belly dance, who had some health issues and was going to approch things slowly and as she felt comfortable each day. She also brought her Mother whose name was Dola. She had recently recovered from a bout with cancer. They were sharing some good Mother /Daughter time together. The thing about Jane was she was very knowledgeable about the the feminine jungian psychology aspects and the ritual and other things we were going to explore on this retreat. It’s what attracted her. She ha been watching the retreats come and go on line for years and finally decided it was time! She was good natured and enthusiastic to try most anything.

Malina was from Japan. She didn’t speak a lot of English but she had a little machine translator thingy. She missed some of the wordy explanations but she felt everything deeply. One of her teachers is the amazing Mishaal from Japan. I love Mishaal. Everyone loves Mishaal. I knew if Mishaal was sending her, she would love this retreat and that even with language barrier. Malina would be well seasoned.

Alexandra is from Seattle via Canada. She is a new member the Neighborhood Temple Priestess group in Seattle. She comes when she can but she needed to know more about belly dance as well as the under pinning of what holds the NTP together. This retreat was an opportunity to go catch her up on a lot of the work and an opportunity for us all to get to know her better. She packed light. She just found out she was pregnant and so thats about all she could think about . The homework things like reading certain books, making a sea faring costumes would have to be done some other time. She would come and be as present as possible.

Lori Green was a last minute sign up. She is also a member of the NTP in Seattle. It was her birthday during our retreat. In addition to being a celebration of life, this retreat was a very transformational experience for her. The retreat was a chance to stop the clock and contemplate deep issues in her life. All retreats have that aspect for guests and participants alike. Depending on what’s going on in our lives they register differently on the Richter scale! We got to know and witness Lori’s deep work.

Verna AKA Eden Nadirah, came to last years retreat as well and was my a measuring rod to the reality that each retreat is so different. She came from frigid temperatures and loads of snow to the beauty of the rich green and passionate island. She felt comfortable with me, Erik and Laura Rose and we all carry an affection for her amazing hips!

Wayne AKA Assiyah is an acupuncturist. He’s been belly dancing for 4 or 5 years now. He loves that he can do something that most men don’t know how to do. It makes him feel unique and he gets to hang out with women he announced proudly. He says to his male friends. You just don’t get what I know. Wayne is a very special person. He has come to 3 of my retreats and we see marked improvement each year. he is a very genuine and sensitive person great for the Temple Priestess movement. The Kalani staff loved seeing him come back each year and love watching him in our performance nights. Funny; Wayne has an identical twin brother we would love to meet sometime!

Christine and John are an amazing couple. Christine is my right arm in planning and brain storming NTP events. John helps out in so many ways with the NTP events  but her likes to be kind of anonymous. When it came to introductions I asked John if he wanted to tell us about himself and he said. “How long have you known me Delilah? Have I ever told you about my self? Well I’m not going to start today.” and thats totally all right with me, I’m just glad John came. Christine is an amazing artist and waters run deep. She makes many of the banners for our events and activities. She is very well read, a wealth of information and inspiration. She has amazing music collection and I rely on her tastes and choosing of music for many of our activities. She does not spend time on e mail, watching TV or dealing with cell phones. I admire that. She lives life fuller than most people and she reminds me by her beingness that there is a way to resist all this electronic culture. However batteries come in handy. Christine offered to bring her electric candles and build a labyrinth on the grounds of the retreat and if I got tired she would love to teach a class she was into practicing all about fire and smoke being an influential element in our dance.  I said wonderful I’ll build it into our revised schedule. Since the schedule was arranged to work with the usual 30 participants with performance time, I think we will have some extra time available.

Laura Rose of course is staff but I was secretly very pleased that I could bring her to this particular retreat. She has been involved in a few NTP things this past year but she is a very in demand performer in Seattle and has lots of rehearsals and shows that keep her busy. I sent her home one day around the winter holidays with my copy of the book, “Goddesses in Every Women” and said I know you read this book years ago, but read it again for inspiration. She read some of it and continued at the retreat. She related partly to Artemis and made her sea faring costume a sea version of Artemis. Laura Rose would get up early each morning and run 5 miles . She had her own room and was not used to staying alone. She read about the virginal Goddesses that Hestia, Athena and Artemis. “What do you think Mom?” She asked me.  “I think there is a healthy dose of Persephone and Aphrodite in you as well my dear, but when I see you Mother your troupe members, friends, students, boy friend and burning man family I see Demeter and once in a while even Hera. We use all these archetypes at different times and seasons of our lives dear daughter.” Laura Rose got a lot of personal growth inspiration out of this retreat. This makes me very happy because while all the glitz and performance art is a skill and vocation, DANCE has another influence in our lives that has nothing to do with performance. It’s about praising the sacred, self exploration and giving thanks for being alive. This is the work of the Neighborhood Temple Priestess (NTP). She got to become very close to Christine and really responded to the exercises she taught. This made me very happy.

Erik Brown is my mate and our music man. He brought his chimbus and his base guitar as well as drums and played his POWER BELLY music. He also used his computers to be our DJ and create music sound scapes for our poetry and guided meditation dances. On this retreat he taught frame drums primarily instead of dumbeks and it was a pleasant change. We walked the garden playing drums. In the end the students all accompanied Erik playing frame drum for my final performance!

The courses we planned were sticky. They fit perfectly together. One lead to the next in the most amazing ways. It was a journey we took together of inner awakening.

We began with a social orientation and Power Belly to get the blood flowing and review and see how we all fit together and what our physical dance needs were. The next day I taught my circle dance choreographies and we turned them into duet dances and added spins. We left open time for beach sun and pool or massages and naps and came back in the late afternoon to talk about NTP pride focus and history. Malina from Japan had a hard time following but Laura Rose sat by her and tried to explain. I’m sure some of the words she heard took her by surprised in a belly dance class. Things about women’s rights, empowerment, the effect on our dance by the events of  9/11, community resources, activism, political art, sexism, exploitation belly dance history, women’s culture. A bit of a montage of subjects. OMG I can imagine how this could get scrambled but she kept seeing my face and eyes and knowing my passion for the beauty and truth that some how she gets it. I know her teacher in Japan well and she can straighten anything out. Why would these subjects have any place in a belly dance class you might wonder? Well, because I am not a simple belly dancer. I think deeply and look at the world around us as it influences the cosmic unconscious of our dance culture. I think belly dance is especially an interesting meter to read in relationship to the psyche of women. How our belly dance styles have evolved in the past 40 years in relationship to our social environment should be looked at.  An blog article in the future no doubt. I feel belly dance empowered my life? Do you? Why do you want to belly dance? Is it just for exercise? Women have been belly dancing in America for 3 powerful generations. Just for exercise? No, not exactly.

We prepared a student note book to hand out to everyone but I can’t write the whole week down so I have another set of my own teachers notes. I gave them to Malina at the end of the retreat so she could study more.

Everyday we had time to relax, sun bath, go to the beach, hot pools or take a nap. We had a drum class before dinner. This helped to steady the pace of our journey together I think. The second night we set up a shadow screen and everyone brought poetry. We did improve dances to poetry and drum in front of and behind the screen. We traded off reading the poems. Everyone was very enthusiastic and it was a good class. We were energetic, comfortable and well oiled. What I mean is everyone seemed able to be very self expressive. I taught them how to deliver my famous veil blessings AKA Veil Therapy as well this night. I explained we could do this at any point during the retreat for each other. The veils would be here in the rainbow room studio.

The next morning we met at the view point, just across the road from Kalani. We did our grounding and centering movement ritual. We gathered the energies into our hearts and sent our love out to dancers all over the planet. The sun rose into the majesty of grand clouds on the horizon. The air was warm the breeze gentle and the waves caressed the rocky island belt line of Pele’s hips.

It was day three and now time to introduce the power of the dance expressed through eyes, arms, hands and heart. We opened up the acute awareness of our body and how it is viewed in space. How does our body feel in the space of the room, world, planet and how does the space inside us feel? What impression do we bring to space as we move into what we know as dance? How do we move in relationship to each other. Can we turn up the volume to our empathetic sensitivity toward each other? We practiced many awareness exercises. beautiful morning.

We left time open in the heat of the day and came back for a hot hips class and drum in the later day. Then dinner on the dinning lanai with a glass of wine or two.

On this night we had a rather eclectic mid week performance night that the staff at Kalani all were rearing to come and be entertained. Well, this a was loose based evening since we were a small group there were no time constraints on performing really.(nice for a change). Basically we wanted to demonstrate aspects of how we incorporate belly dance into rites of passage celebrations in community NTP style; baby showers, weddings, blessings, wakes. . . . As well as share our deep artistic inspirations in engaging performance art. So we asked the Kalani staff to participate in a ritual with us. We asked each member to stand in a circle and one by one recite their lineage on their mothers side as we had our pregnant participant in the seat of honor. I began;  I am Delilah mother of Laura Rose and Victoria, I am daughter of Marilyn who is daughter of Berty who is Daughter of Lucy who is daughter of Marie. As each member adds the names of the women who came before them we the  space begins to fill up with the presence of all the ancestral women / Mothers who have come before us to make our life possible. With this comes a powerful presence. Usually this ritual is done with mostly women but here there were alot of men in the audience. Interesting was the note that most men did not know who their Great Grand mothers names were. Hmmmm? Lori noted it and decided when she got home she was going to make sure her teen age son knew these names in her family.

We dressed up Laura Rose as a bride and pampered and washed her feet. It’s actually a humbling ritual. It’s very caring and brings people together in a special way. I danced to a Nubian folk song called 2000 Blessings fro your wedding day. Next we introduced the concept of taste and scents as muse for dances. Before each solo we fed the audience chocolate, ginger and exotic fragrances. Christine did a very exotic candle dance in complete darkness and Laura Rose  did a concept dance of experiencing raw savage stress and it being cured by the soothing relief of camomile. Lori and Malina danced solos with heavenly scents and I did the chocolate dance. It was a very eclectic show.

Continued in Part Two

or see April 2-9 2010 retreat details!

Well the diet I shared with you earlier worked great! Il I lost 10 pounds in 10 days. I feel great! I want to be careful and stay away from the beer so I don’t gain it back! Hard. I love a beer after Power Belly!

Today I told Laura Rose not to shoot tonight, because we have too many last minute odds and ends getting ready for our January Hawaii Retreat. We have stuff to ship ahead, things to print, and Sea Faring Costumes to finish making. Of coarse we will have our Monday night Power belly class. We just won’t shoot it I think.

I couldn’t get much done this weekend because we had our monthly  Belly Dance Carabet Night in the studio with H.O.T (The band House of Tarab) and two fab dancers Sabura and Lisa Yasmeen. Really nice night but it means we spend hours preparing and knocking down the space . It’s intimate only 45 seats.

We will feature Laura Rose and Hassani with HOT on Friday Feb 19th of next month. ( 3rd Fri of the month)

Then all day Sunday;

Dahlia and I went down to  Tacoma to judge a belly dance contest all day long that Halima put on.  I love watching all the dancers from the judges front row table. It sure takes nerves of steel to compete and be put under a microscope. Contests do not bring out the best in everyone necessarily. Stressful and more like an obsticle corse than a regualr dance. AND some dancers that are not good club dancers do well in competition settings. I hope the judges comments are taken in the right way. All the judges try to be helpful I think.  Contests are a way to either learn or burn. By that I mean get your feelings hurt and be disappointed. What I don’t like about most contests is that they hardly ever have professional stage lighting. The dance mood is very hard for the dancer to get into anything very theatrical. It doesn’t have to be like that. I think a good contest should provide a professional environment and lighting changes are part of the performance as much as costumes are. But it all takes money. This is the first year for Halima’s contest but next year I hope someone can help her with lighting .  That would most likely mean a different location however and she probably likes the one she’s using. Contests are very interesting to watch if you love belly dance. Everyone can learn by watching. They need sponsorship, advertising and a good venue to be sucessful. As they gain a track record the winning may holds more meaning, but the small contests are just for fun. I hope no one takes it too seriously.

Ok we are off for Hawaii soon. Happy days!

D

Episode 28, Labyrinth and  Delilah’s Diet
Filmed on January 4th,

It is the first Power Belly Show of the New Year. Classes are filling up nicely this week but the Monday class was a bit small. We did a lot during the holidays as far as really cool events. Dahlia had a student recital. Her husbands band had an album release party at the studio. We did a Solstice Labyrinth dance and Feast event and Laura Rose filmed part of the labyrinth dance and it will be an interesting extra I think on this episode!
Then on New Years afternoon we did a Zaar. I think we exhausted every one psychically. However we didn’t do our usual Power Belly Classes for the last two weeks of December. I personally feel a bit spongy around the middle after indulging in all the rich foods. I really need to do power belly at least 2-3 times a week and sweat to make up for all the sitting at the computer I’ve been doing trying to assist the team with the web site stuff. It’s been especially cold and that makes me hungry too. Yikes! I feel it.
On this episode I feel we kept it simple and sweaty. Wanted to start the new year out with a goal and I am tired of all the food and partying. Enough! So on this episode I did mention I was going to start a diet to get ready for a swim suit in Hawaii at our coming retreat. I said I would post it on my blog. Partly to make me stick to the diet and partly to introduce my blog. So you will see me with a few extra pounds on lets see if I take em off. I could be setting my self up here. Oh well, here goes.
Back Story
I haven’t been on a diet in years. As long as I keep moving and am conscientious I don’t worry to much about my weight. I do not come from fast metabolizing genes either. All the women in my family have to watch it. None were athletes like Laura Rose and me. We know we gotta exercise. We both could see the advantages to learning to be a professional belly dance for sure. Those first shows I did were 45 -55 minutes long when I first began to dance back with the Lebanese band. Not one hair was dry when I finished!

When I was a teen I had to diet I have learned good habits from weight watchers with my Mother. Coarse the diet has changed a lot since those days.  Thats not the diet I’m going to share here. As we age our metabolism changes. Fat deposits it’s self in very predicable areas. If you don’t sleep, you can’t loose weight and your body will hold on to it. Insomnia is rampant these days at any age. Many people struggle with weight issues. It’s very hard, I know.

I went on this diet when I was 17, and then my favorite aerobic instructor Barb Ode many years later handed me the same diet at age 35. She claimed to have lost over 100 pound by going on it 2 week on and 2 weeks off. Then she became an aerobic instructor and kept the weight off. It always worked for me to take weight off fast and feel more comfortable. I usually stay on it for 10 days. If I had a lot of weight to loose I would approach it slower with weight watchers. I don’t know if it will work now a days. My metabolism is way different.I’m going to give this old diet a try again and see how it goes.
Clinic High Protein Reduction Diet
Follow this diet carefully for two weeks. Abstain from anything not included, but make sure you eat what is assigned rather than doing without. Vegetables must be eaten without butter; salads without oils; grapefruit without sugar; no cream or sugar in coffee or tea; and only the lean part of the steak or chops should be used.

Your weight loss range may be from 10 to 20 pounds in two weeks. Do not follow this diet longer than two weeks. It is harmless for two weeks, but may create problems if followed longer.

The basic premise of this diet is maintenance of normal energy while reducing calories. A change of body chemistry occurs during the process and only specific food elements should be eaten. Quantities are less important, except where indicated.

Monday

Breakfast:1 egg, 1/2 slice of toast, grapefruit & black coffee

Lunch: Serving of cottage cheese, tomato & 6 oz skim milk

Dinner: 1 broiled meat patty, combination salad*, 1 piece dry toast & grapefruit

.

Tuesday

Breakfast: 1 egg, 1/2 slice of toast, grapefruit & black coffee

Lunch: Grapefruit, 1 cup custard**, skim milk

Dinner: Steak, tomatoes, lettuce, celery, olives, cucumbers, coffee or tea

Wednesday

Breakfast: 1 egg, 1/2 slice of toast, grapefruit & black coffee

Lunch: Cottage cheese, tomato, spinach***, 1 banana, 6 oz skim milk

Dinner: 2 lamb chops, celery, carrots, tomatoes, coffee or tea

Thursday

Breakfast: 1 serving of oatmeal, 4 oz orange juice, 6 oz skim milk

Lunch: Combination salad, grapefruit

Dinner: Lean meat, cottage cheese, spinach, 1 piece dry toast, coffee

Friday

Breakfast: 1 serving of oatmeal, 4 oz orange juice, 6 oz skim milk

Lunch: Cottage cheese, spinach, 6 oz skim milk, 2-3 rye crisps.

Dinner: Fish combination salad, 1 piece dry toast, grapefruit, coffee or tea

Saturday

Breakfast: 1 serving of oatmeal, 4 oz orange juice, 6 oz skim milk

Lunch: Fruit salad (nothing else)

Dinner: Plenty of steak, celery, tomatoes, carrots, tea or coffee

Sunday

Breakfast: 1 egg, 1/2 slice of toast, grapefruit & black coffee

Lunch: Cold chicken, tomatoes, grapefruit, coffee or tea

Dinner: Vegetable soup, Chicken, tomatoes, cooked cabbage, carrots, celery, half a grape fruit, tea or coffee

Notes

*

A combination salad is a salad with protein, such as a chefs salad or similar. It could include a bit of egg, tuna, jack or cheddar cheese, or fetta cheese. 
** The custard is basically egg and milk. A scrambled egg will do.

*** Combine spinach, chopped tomatoes, cottage cheese and “Spike” seasoning salt (usually found in health food stores and some grocery stores). A great salad when those items are called for.

I have made substitutes and additions and the diet seems to still work. I substitute canned or fresh pineapple for orange juice, feta for cottage cheese. I also have had a glass of white dry wine at night once in a while. However, if you are strict it’s a very effective diet.

We shall see how I do on episode 29.

Wish me luck! I think I will miss my beer the most !

Delilah

2010, Look back 70’s, 80’s, 90, 2000’s
I’m usually pretty positive but actually I do worry these days.
The state of belly dance is turning into a ghetto my friend says. She says she’s lived in ghettos and she’s seen other subcultures turn into ghettos.  She says the signs are here.
My stomach tightens up. I have been in belly dance for 35 years. I am protective of it. It’s my family and I want to see it grow healthy and thrive! As belly dance has demonstrated time and again for me and thousands of other dancers it has shaped my core belief that the potential is great. If channeled correctly it can benefit women in so many ways. It can make us self reliant, strong and able to express ourselves more openly and exercise our goddess given right to creativity. I don’t see these benefits as the end result either. When women are strong and healthy these benefits radiate out into benefiting family and community. To hear her say these words is painful to me. I contemplate them as we passed the blue moon eclipse on Dec 31st 2009 and meet the new year 2010.
In a ghetto everyone is suspicious of their neighbor. Things get run down. No money for up keep. Things degenerate. Gotta have bars on all the doors and window so even if you aren’t in jail, it feels like it. People are on the dole and stop thinking for them selves. Smart people act stupid. Despair and poverty and violence against women dominate. Folks get disenfranchised. They resort to crime and gang mentality. Poverty consciousness is a viral infection. A pair of tennis shoes become status symbols and meanness and profanity becomes a way of deflection, thus self protection.
Oh my Goddess! Belly dance ? No !
Everything has it’s dark side. We dance in and out of shadow, yin and yang and it is all a part of the universe. Of course I like to dwell on the light side but one cannot ignore the dark. It gives brilliance to the light. It’s foolish not to embrace wholeness.

I think hard. I think about the past 38 years I have witnesses belly dance and how our dance (as is all art) is  a product of our social and political environment. Our bodies are vessels moving through this stew. How we feel is wordlessly reflected back.
The signs. The internet chat groups are painful much of the time. Often it feels like people are lining up for their chance to through stones. They say things they would never say face to face or in public. They have no social editing alone with our key boards. They activly crave the next bruhaha! It’s fear based insecure and sometimes very dangerous. Words can murder people.
All I can say is I look forward to it’s passing.
As I was saying the art of belly dance is always shaped by the culture that surround it. Of course, all art is. This is a life dance and what you know and experience is what your dance is made of weather you know it or not. Course if you just do some one else’s choreography, then it’s not even your life, your dance is made of (think on that).
I have been in belly dance for 35 plus years. I have seen all sorts of climate changes. A talk with Audreena who has been in belly dancing a lot longer than me was enlightening. “This too will pass” she said wisely. “The strong will survive, I’ve seen it more than once come around”.

When I first began belly dance in the 70’s it was the end of the Vietnam war, we ousted a U.S. president for wrong doings. We had a sense of social justice, a climate of free love, the birth control pill which meant so much freedom to women, thus women’s lib and bra burning. I was free to choose a career and postpone a family. In contrast my Mother’s generation was all about kids, family and station wagons. In the 70’s belly dance in American got it’s foot hold big time. It grew out of this culture of freedom and hope.

In the 80’s. Bingo! We got the aids epidemic.  So many famous faces in show business fell.  By the late 80’s many people decided to marry and settle down. Many changed their politics and went from hippy to corporate. Fear of aids changed peoples attitudes about love and relationships. This became the generation that was afraid to kiss and exchange liquids. This played hard on the psyche of young people born and growing up. My daughter for instance. It was dark, bleak and insulating.  Home video came in. People became conscientious about drinking and driving. Laws became much stricter. Folks stayed home to watched videos and did their drinking.  These two factors were a big change on the live entertainment industry that was dependent on alcohol sales. Clubs didn’t have the income to pay for live music like they used to. Wages did not keep up for performers. Interestingly another thing was women’s studies departments began to get stronger. (I have a theory on this but I will save it for some other post). I remember people investing in art more. Many of my friends sold art in galleries. Drum circles and goddess imagery was everywhere. I started my family in these years and got my first home computer. In the 80’s woman heard the call of the goddess to belly dance.

By the 90’s we were visionary. Creative visualization, meditation, yoga and Buddhist teachings. The dot com age came about. The end of the cold era and the birth of the internet was growing. People set up their own camps on line. To many womens regret they found that their birthing opportunity years had passed them buy. Antidepressants were on the rise like candy and high school shooting began. We went back to war. Belly dance grew steadily. Tribal style came into being out of the insulation that was birthed in the 80’s. It felt safe to dance in groups. Skin clothed in tattoos with prickly looking piercing were were imitations of natures warning signs; beware here. Women became more openly gay and exploration was accepted in more circles. Anorexia was on the rise for men. Transgender ideas draw to the surface.

In the 2000’s we got 9/11 terrorist attacks that changed everything. Fear not freedom would be the new over riding activation of belly energy. Belly dance didn’t suffer from 9/11, it grew faster! However it grew as fusion. No longer dependent on middle eastern music. Tribal belly dance set up their own festivals and belly dance grew and divided. Our constitutional rights have been eroded. We all got cell phones. Air travel became a night mare. We are kept pretty distracted on computers around the clock with internet social networks, computer games, you tube, wiki pedia, text messaging and twitter. Old established newspapers died. Things are changing at the rate of nanoseconds. By the end of this era we vote in social change and Omaba is President but we are soon  constricted by economic factors we are helpless to fix. Those responsible for huge social injustices seem to keep going . We feel helpless and that there is no justice. This is a very bad situation for women right now when compared with the 70’s. It’s hard to feel strong, self reliant and focused. We need to constantly wake each other up. When women feel scared and with out resources they get very competitive thus contests have risen in popularity, and stone throwing behavior on the internet forums. Ladies ladies ladies!
The disease of poverty consciousness is attached to money, love and beauty. Women get so many signs from popular culture. Such as: It’s money that makes you secure and gives you value. Love is finite, thus jealousy takes hold. You are only loved if beautiful, only beautiful  if young, blonde buxom, skinny. . . OMG what bull shit! So many movies depict women as men’s masterbation devices. Ugh!
Today many women are desperately seeking permission from outside. From perceived higher authority. They crave credentials and discipline so they will know their own value. Sadly because they do not know their own value. Women are right to fear. The world situation and power base has not changed for women like they hoped in the 70’s. I just think we gotta stay wake and work harder to change the world and no one is saying its going to be easy. We gotta keep dancing. The hope for the world as the Dalai Lama said in Oct. 2009 is in the hands of Western women.
Please, beware of sitting on the internet all day and still believing you are a dancer. Stay clear make sure you dance every day!

Delilah

Pop another bottle of bubbly!
Our new site went up for most areas of the country by New Years Day!
Seems to be loading a bit slow. Hopefully we can remedy that in coming days. We still have some tweaking to do here and there. They are working on a new Bio page for me. That ones been up for years and is out dated. The old pages like Alexandra’s Library, news articles, sound bites, The Belly Dance Coin Flip and the Under Water Belly Dance Gallery are still there, linked from “Inspirations.” Please let us know how you like it, or if you see problems!

E Studio
Happy to see dancers are logging on to the eStudio. Probably anxious to get moving and shed some of those extra holiday pounds. I know I am. It’s been cold in Seattle and I just want to eat carbs. Natures way of keeping you warm. The last two weeks in December are pretty quiet at VDP Studios for nightly classes because of family obligations and stuff. We did the labyrinth night and the Zaar but those weren’t very aerobic. I really miss not doing Power Belly 3 times a week. So Monday I get serious again. Only 3 week until Hawaii and bathing suit time!

Hawaii 24-31 2010
Jane called and wants to bring her Mom to the January Retreat. We have this happen a lot. It’s actually makes a wonderfully memorable vacation experience to share with Mothers/Daughters. It’s an incredible value and life is short. (I wish I had done more with my dad now that he has passed.)You don’t have to think at a retreat. Just relax in paradise. The grounds are fairly flat for walking and so beautiful and restful. Healthy food, massage studios, hot tubs, sauna, ocean across the street. No TV’s however. It’s a retreat. Our Neighborhood Temple Priestess activities are really fascinating for watching and participating in. Veil Therapy AKA Veil Blessings is really a pleasant experience to have done for you. We will do a lot of dancing but also a guided meditation and lots of soft creative goddessy things. Airfare from Seattle is only $321 at this moment! Still a few spaces open.

Zaar Ritual
The Zaar went well on New Years Day. It was a nice sized group of 10 dancers 6 drummers, me and a bun in the oven. We had a few people bag out because they celebrated too hard the night before. To be expected. Jeanine who is scheduled to have a baby tomorrow came. She thought she would just clap and watch but  she participated. She was familiar with my Zaar ritual and she was careful. Her presence added alot to the entire experience for all of us. She brought HOPE to the new year. Ed Sulivan played digereedo and Steven Elaimy played oud after each Zaar set for us to meditate on. A very nice combination of sounds. Erik, Kate, Brigette, Ed, Stephen and Raks Steady Eddie drummed.  After our ritual we went across the street to have a small pot luck at my house. It was warm and cozy and we all sat around the living room for some nice conversation and warm food and drink.

Here’s to a powerful 2010 for us all!

Delilah

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Dear Dancers,

I trust you all having a wondrous Holiday Season. We have been working hard for  months on our new web site and are scheduled to go live with this New Web site, tomorrow, under a full blue moon, lunar eclipse, it’s New Years Eve, (on my Birthday). Hope it all works. It’s been a huge job! We are so excited!

On NEW YEARS DAY we are having a Zaar Ritual at VDP Studios. I have been talking about it by word of mouth for months. This is not for the weak of heart or mind. A zaar, zahr, zar,  is a cathartic trance  dance ritual. This particular ritual is my own design and has been performed since 1994. Dancers find it very powerful. We are limiting it to 20 dancers because of time and space. We will teach some skills, give the the ritual outline then do it in 2 sets. Each person will be shown some exercises and given back ground and then will facilitate as a spotter for one set and dancer for  the second. Anyone who is interested is invited but we have limited space. Find out details here >>

Introduction:

The zar or zahr or zaar is known for being a trance dance. A  cathartic ritual performed in various areas of the middle east. It seems to take different forms depending on the local and time in history. It is a ritual of cleansing, a remedy for mental illness, a process of chasing away evil spirits, problems, depression and renewal. An ancient form of movement therapy really. Supposedly a zahr may be held for someone in particular who is ill at ease. An individual may seek out a location where open zahrs are held or independently heir musicians to perform the zahr rhythms as a service.  From out of my many years of trance dance experience my opinion is it all depends on your focus of intention how you want you use a movement trance. There is a universality that just takes on different cultural twists. Words, labels, descriptions, of experience are very subjective. There are many perspectives, superstitions and takes on what I think is a very common experience. Aspects of it have worked their way into belly dance routines. You may have seen where dancers start throwing their head and hair around in a circle to an ayoub rhythm.

I have had the opportunity to dance spontaneously to live music on stage for 45 -55 minute sets on a nightly basis I will tell you I was in trance for most of the time. During those trances I experience being able to do physically extreme gymnastics that I could not explain how I learned them or did them. I experience more endurance and energy reserves. The famous turkish drop was one of those kinds of events. I could never do that in a class or at the start of a routine. I had to be warmed up physically as well as psychically. Extreme neck gyrations are another thing people sometimes do in trance. Indian fakirs (and shaman all over the world for that matter) do extraordinary things with skewers and shisks.

The word Zahr is used in different ways and is ambiguous but it is connected with trance dance. Zahr rhythms, zahr house where musicians gather to play for participants, zahr woman, zar dance , zar exorcism. Trance is a loaded word for some religious people that connect it with demons and possession. For others it is treated more academically and scientifically. (You have to believe in demons to be effected by them, in my book, but be warned and decide for your self). The sufi ziker (dhikr), the tribal blessing dances of the Geudra, and healing trance dances of the Moroccan Jarjooka, Haitian voodoo dances with their Gods and Goddesses that originated from Africa, Indian fakirs,  American Indian pow wows, even the Christian Pentecostal and charismatic activities, Buddhist chanting and church hymns and are all dealing with and inducing a trance state. At least this is my point of view as I have experienced many of these things. Utilizing specific chants, repetitive prayers, rhythms, hand movements, body swaying are all methods to access cathartic conditions, and mind scapes. Repetition and focus are key. Doing the dishes and driving our car across town we all do in a trance state. Creating art is trance work. I do not find anything scary about these condition. I happen to like doing it in a physical capacity thus trance dance. It is powerful self exploration. Me? I come from a more scientific view of these states and view superstition and dogma as having blocked peoples access to their own internal mind scape. People should give it deep thought. I respect your feeling and experience if you feel differently.

The book Dancing in the Street by Barbara Ehrenreich I highly recommend. She explains the origins of dance as pure celebration. In ancient times dance was as necessary to the human spirit as water and bread. It was unheard of not to dance but it was nothing like ballet or performance on a stage. It was all about direct experience of actually dancing and giving thanks directly to the world at large for fully being in a body; bone, heart and soul.

My ritual has 3-4 distinct parts before the ayoub section. I’ll blog and let you know how this one turns out.

happy New Year 2010

Delilah

A great way to start the new year of 2010.

Here are some great resources on Zaar Rituals:

• Zaar (Leava) Ceremony in Bushehr, Iran
• ORIENTALiSH: Resources for Zaar Dance and Rituals
• The Solace of the Zaar
• youTube video depicting a Zaar Ritual

Yours in Dance,
Delilah